Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266276

. 2022 Apr 13;17(4):e0266276.

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266276. eCollection 2022.

Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia

Mila Nu Nu Htay¹, Laurence Lloyd Parial^{2

3}, Ma Carmen Tolabing⁴, Kevin Dadaczynski^{5

6}, Orkan Okan⁷, Angela Yee Man Leung², Tin Tin Su⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia, Bukit Baru, Melaka, Malaysia.
² School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ College of Nursing, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines.
⁵ Center for Applied Health Science, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Health Science, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Fulda, Germany.
⁷ Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University Munich, München, Germany.
⁸ South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) & Global Public Health, Jeffery Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia.

PMID: 35417478
PMCID: PMC9007389
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266276

Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia

Mila Nu Nu Htay et al. PLoS One. 2022.

. 2022 Apr 13;17(4):e0266276.

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266276. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Mila Nu Nu Htay¹, Laurence Lloyd Parial^{2

3}, Ma Carmen Tolabing⁴, Kevin Dadaczynski^{5

6}, Orkan Okan⁷, Angela Yee Man Leung², Tin Tin Su⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia, Bukit Baru, Melaka, Malaysia.
² School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ College of Nursing, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines.
⁵ Center for Applied Health Science, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Health Science, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Fulda, Germany.
⁷ Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University Munich, München, Germany.
⁸ South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) & Global Public Health, Jeffery Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia.

PMID: 35417478
PMCID: PMC9007389
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266276

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing interest in online information about coronavirus worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the digital health literacy (DHL) level, information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of information on COVID-19 among East and South-East Asia university students. This cross-sectional web-based study was conducted between April to June 2020 by recruiting students from universities in China, Malaysia, and the Philippines. University students who have Internet access were invited to participate in the study. Items on sociodemographic variables, DHL, information-seeking behaviour, and information satisfaction were included in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were conducted. A total of 5302 university students responded to the survey. The overall mean score across the four DHL subscales was 2.89 (SD: 0.42). Search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, Yahoo) (92.0%) and social media (88.4%) were highly utilized by the students, whereas Websites of doctors or health insurance companies were of lower utilization (64.7%). Across the domains (i.e., adding self-generated content, determining relevance, evaluating reliability, and protecting privacy) higher DHL was positively associated with higher usage of trustworthy resources. Providing online information on COVID-19 at official university websites and conducting health talks or web-based information dissemination about the strategies for mental health challenges during pandemic could be beneficial to the students. Strengthening DHL among university students will enhance their critical thinking and evaluation of online resources, which could direct them to the quality and trustworthy information sources on COVID-19.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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References

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[1] Xiang YT, Jin Y, Cheung T. Joint International Collaboration to Combat Mental Health Challenges During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(10):989–90. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.1057 - DOI - PubMed

[2] Xiang YT, Jin Y, Cheung T. Joint International Collaboration to Combat Mental Health Challenges During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(10):989–90. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.1057 - DOI - PubMed

[3] Bassetti M, Vena A, Giacobbe DR. The novel Chinese coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections: Challenges for fighting the storm. Eur J Clin Invest. 2020;50(3):e13209. doi: 10.1111/eci.13209 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[4] Bassetti M, Vena A, Giacobbe DR. The novel Chinese coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections: Challenges for fighting the storm. Eur J Clin Invest. 2020;50(3):e13209. doi: 10.1111/eci.13209 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[5] Zarocostas J. How to fight an infodemic. Lancet. 2020;395(10225):676. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30461-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[6] Zarocostas J. How to fight an infodemic. Lancet. 2020;395(10225):676. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30461-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[7] van der Vaart R, Drossaert C. Development of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument: Measuring a Broad Spectrum of Health 1.0 and Health 2.0 Skills. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19(1):e27. doi: 10.2196/jmir.6709 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[8] van der Vaart R, Drossaert C. Development of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument: Measuring a Broad Spectrum of Health 1.0 and Health 2.0 Skills. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19(1):e27. doi: 10.2196/jmir.6709 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[9] Vosoughi S, Roy D, Aral S. The spread of true and false news online. Science. 2018;359(6380):1146–51. doi: 10.1126/science.aap9559 - DOI - PubMed

[10] Vosoughi S, Roy D, Aral S. The spread of true and false news online. Science. 2018;359(6380):1146–51. doi: 10.1126/science.aap9559 - DOI - PubMed

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Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia

Affiliations

Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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